While sitting at lunch with a few friends, all of us sipping on various drinks, some sugar laden some not so much, I was listening to the tongues wagging about New York Governor Paterson's proposal to add additional taxes on the purchase of sugary drinks. I started to analyze this move, trying to come to terms with how I felt about it. My feelings on this are not ambiguous, yet I don't have my feet planted firmly on the for or against side of this issue.
In defense of the request to add an additional 18 percent sales tax on sugary sodas and fruit drinks containing less than 70 percent natural fruit juice, Laura L. Anglin, the state of New York budget director, stated that "one out of every four New Yorkers is obese". This tax will purportedly raise $400 million a year for health programs, and is expected to decrease the consumption of nutritionally void high calorie soft drinks by 5 percent. That can only be a good thing, right? There's no debating the facts. Obesity is on the incline in this country. Thirty states boast an obesity rate equal to or greater than 25 percent, three states equal to or greater than thirty percent. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. with 30 percent of Americans classified as obese. Minority and low-socioeconomic-status groups are disproportionately affected by this epidemic, at all ages.
The most verifiable and common cause of weight gain and obesity are consuming more calories than the body needs (sometimes in the form of empty sugar laden high calorie soft drinks), and being sedentary. There are recent studies, however, which suggest the imbalance between calories consumed and calories burned can also be caused by a number of different obesity-related factors, including genetic, hormonal, behavioral, environmental and even cultural. In adding a tax of this kind it is important to remember that obesity is not always simply a behavioral issue. I don't disagree with the tactic of taxing something unnecessary to provide funds for services which could eliminate or significantly decrease a serious problem, but I can't see, at least not with any clarity, how soft drinks are causal, and if I were a resident of New York I'd want to know to their plan going forward.
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Article comments
1 - dee
that budget from Patterson is a disgrace... we (the USA) have come full circle on taxes and need to put a stop to it... these as*holes think they can tax whatever they want... do they even consider instead of increasing taxes, attempting to manage their money better? the consumers should not be responsible for paying a "fat" tax on these sugary products, tax the corporations who make the product that is so bad for you... this county has some f*cked up people calling the shots
2 - cooper
There are certainly ways to address obesity. Taxing soft drinks is clearly not the answer especially taking into consideration, as you said, what they do with the money they already have. I admit to ignorance on the history of this governors fiscal habits.
3 - Silas Kain
Next thing you know we'll be taxed on what we see. Sorry for the sick humor but this is just one more example of politicians grasping at tax straws. Soon states will be charging a yearly road use tax based on the actual number of miles one drives their car. The Internet and Cable will be charged by the hour. Open your eyes, America. We're not going to have to worry about hourly wages. We're gonna have to start counting in minutes.
4 - cooper
You aren't far off, and the whole internet and cable thing is something I've been trying to follow. The things I am reading lately indicate your predictions may not be far off, unless everyone starts paying attention, and even then I wonder what chance we have at preserving things as we have them now.
5 - Silas Kain
People better smarten up. North Carolina could be putting this use tax in place very soon. Is the government going to use this as a "price for freedom" approach? Seems to me Americans keep paying and are getting a lot less for their buck.
6 - Ruvy
Silas, as usual, has his eye on the ball that is coming to hit you right in the eye.
And whatever the Americans do, the monkeys on government hill here in Israel are sure to copy. So it pays to keep an eye on what kinds of tax thefts the American governments are planning to pull off.
That said, the problem with obesity - aside from the obvious overconsumption of calories - is the commercial culture that pushes irresponsible behavior without consequences. The same culture that creates hundreds of thousands of abortions through "fucking for free" irresponsible sex also creates obesity through "stuffing for free" (You deserve a break today!" "Have it your way, right away!"), creates infantile expectations ("thirty minutes or you get it for free!") and pushes sitting at a computer typing (gee, what am I doing now?) and heating up the keys. On-line sex (less effort than the real thing), "chatting" etc., etc.
So the problem is less with the government trying to turn you all over and shake all the loose change out of your pockets - hey, what are governments for anyway, your benefit or something? - than with a sick culture that pushes and pushes irresponsible behavior and dumbs you down at the same time.
Read Carroll Quigley's works - if you can find them! Clinton did!
7 - Silas Kain
Hmmm. Why not a stupid tax? Forget it, Southern citizens don't have the cash. How about an elitist tax? Oops, can't do that, most of Obama's Cabinet comes from Harvard think tanks. Hey. How about selling the Senate seats from New York, Colorado and Illinois to the highest bidders? Now THAT'S an American solution! Oops, can't do that either unless you're a politician who's inside the political loop. Otherwise a politician might get prematurely arrested on trumped up charges.
8 - red state insurgent in a blue state
I would rather be a fat capitalist than a skinny socialist. 'nuff said.
9 - cooper
Ruvy:
I've read Quigley. He's a must read Alma mater at my grad school, but I can't see blaming the culture on personal behavior. I see lack of education and lack of money as a factor in both obesity and abortions.
10 - cooper
Goodness Silas what does the tax in New York State have to do with Obama's cabinet?
Anyway, we would have made more money with a "stupid tax" if we had initiated it with this last administration.
11 - Jim Tressor
This reminds me a lot of a fat tax! I don't think a fat tax is very practical - there are several things wrong with Pigouvian taxes in general. They are hard to calculate because it is impossible to determine the exact amount of externality caused, in this case by obesity, and they affect different people in different ways! Here is an article about why a fat tax wouldn't work.